From my reading:

[clever_catbird]

“[Spenser] became not merely an apologist for a monarch and a court that, after 1580, he was to visit rarely, and then with a complex (and probably painful) sense of bewilderment and betrayal, but for a policy of such racist brutality that even C.S. Lewis, Protestant Ulsterman and admirer of Spenser only just this side of idolatry, summed up by his

Comments

[sethrates]

Perhaps some people have been expressing doubts about Mr. Waller's claimed sexual identity, and he wanted to silence their objections with authoritative footnote.

[clever_catbird]

I like that theory. I'll look into it in my copious spare time and report back to you.